CHAPTER TWO
CAILYN
As soon as the Emperor left, Cailyn let out a heavy breath of relief. She fell against the desk trembling, bracing herself with both hands and breathing deeply. What the fuck was that? It was almost as if he could tell she was an Omega.
Steadying herself, she made her way back to the desk in the corner and sat down. Closing her eyes, she focused her mind and checked her magical blocks from the top of her head through her entire body to the soles of her feet. All were securely in place.
She opened her eyes, biting her lip in thought. The Emperor’s behavior had made her think at least one of her blocks had been knocked askew. He glared at her with those cold black eyes as though he knew she hid something, and when he grabbed her, he rubbed her neck like he wanted to force her to submit. The crazy thing was, she almost did. She almost went limp as soon as his massive, rough hand closed around her neck and jaw, and she’d had to fight against the automatic reaction. She shouldn’t have had that response—that was the whole point of the fucking blocks.
She sighed and rubbed her forehead. The Emperor was much more terrifying than she’d imagined. Massive, bulky, and animalistic, he was so alpha he was almost a ridiculous stereotype. His wild black hair, the way he prowled the room, his arrogance and demands—all typical of an Alpha with no limit to his ego. The only thing that had surprised her was his way of communicating. Most Alphas she had come across were unable to articulate themselves so well, even if they were smart. They lacked the patience to reason with anyone. The Emperor had shown great patience with her rebellious comments and she had expected punishment when she kept pushing. She hadn’t been able to help it. With her Omega instincts blocked, it was easy to be as pushy and sarcastic as she wanted, and it was difficult not to be when she utterly despised him. He represented every reason why Omegas would never return to normal society. The fact he thought he deserved them, like they were property to be owned, was enough of a reason to fuck up his investigation.
She tapped her fingers on the desk, surveying the room but not seeing any of it. Now she had met him, she could properly form a plan. Firstly, her reaction to him needed to be corrected. She was almost certain that he had been emitting Alpha pheromones and if she hadn’t been blocked, her superior Omega sense of smell would have been overwhelmed. She would have ended up at his feet in a pool of slick begging him to fill her. She shouldn’t have been physically affected by him at all and couldn’t afford for that to happen again. She was the most accomplished Omega in the Compound with the Talent, which was the reason why she was given the mission in the first place. Since she didn’t have any contact with the Mothers to ask them why this had happened, the best she could do was reinforce her blocks and try to stay away from him.
Secondly, the investigation. It was well known that Emperor Drocco had been collecting information for decades, and now that he had secured the Eastern Lands and was restructuring it as the Lox Empire, the Mothers wanted to make sure he would not find them. She had been sent to find out how much he knew about the Omegas and mislead him. However, if he wasn’t going to allow her to copy or remove any information, and if he was going to be working closely with her, it would be difficult to secure anything pertinent. She would need to commit important things to memory or use the Talent.
She stood, finally looking carefully at the room. The three-month time frame she had told the Emperor wasn’t entirely accurate. She really only required one and a half to two months, but she needed the breathing space. She had intercepted the real Miss Camille Lefroy only that morning, taken her identity, and had her hidden. Although she had studied her for months, many things could go wrong if anyone was to suspect she wasn’t who she said she was. Luckily the real Miss Lefroy only went by her family name in her profession, and her friends and family called her Cece; very few people knew her real name. Still, one letter from Vamore would be all it would take to impede her mission or cause her immediate death. She needed to be careful.
She firmed her mind and got to work with new enthusiasm, sorting and reading the books and files. The quicker she got this done, the quicker she could leave this mission and Emperor Drocco behind.
***
For the next week, the Emperor came to see her three times a day. He arrived at the research room every morning, midday, and late afternoon to find out what she had discovered. He made her tell him everything she had found during her reading and then forced her to theorize an opinion. Of course, her opinion kept changing the more she unearthed and she began to feel mentally exhausted with the constant analyzing.
At the beginning of the second week, she returned to her private quarters at midday to avoid him. Her quarters were not far from the research room and consisted of a beautifully furnished living area with an entire wall of glass that looked out over Ashens city, a spacious bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen area. Lying on her bed, reading a letter from the real Miss Lefroy’s sister, she fell asleep.
A strange air around her caused her to stir awake. She blinked, suddenly alert, and slowly sat up. Turning to glance around her quarters, she screamed in shock. Emperor Drocco loomed next to her bed, his wide build blocking almost all the light.
“Emperor,” she gasped. “What are you doing in here?”
“This is my Palace,” he said, gruffly. “I can go anywhere I choose.”
She bit her tongue to avoid responding with an angry retort. She valued her privacy, especially with her occupation. Taking a breath to calm her racing heart, she secured herself upright, keeping her eyes low. “How can I help you, Emperor?”
“You know I am due to see you at midday,” he said. “I arrived today and you weren’t there.”
“I wasn’t aware I was required to be there.”
“Of course you are,” he barked. “I need an update and an analysis.”
She lifted her eyes to meet his. “These updates are causing me mental fatigue, Emperor. They also waste a lot of time. In a week, I have done a fifth of the work possible because I keep being interrupted to stop and explain things to you.”
The Emperor’s eyes narrowed. “I need nothing explained to me. I have read every single one of those files,” he said, his tone sharp. “I’m making sure you are as good as your reputation suggests.”
Cailyn made a face. “If you don’t trust my reputation, why have you allowed me on the investigation?”
“You are being interviewed.” His eyes glittered from the shadows on his face. “And this midday nap does not bode well for your continued employment.”
Cailyn’s mood lifted. If he retired her from the investigation that would be perfect. She could simply take the useful information she had found so far and leave unscathed. “Are you bringing in another researcher?”
The Emperor looked down at her for a long moment but she couldn’t see his expression with the shadows across his face. That trembly feeling began to rise in her again and she tensed, hoping it wouldn’t overwhelm her.
“Get back to the research room.” He spun on his heel, his black robes twirling around his enormous frame, and left the room.
Cailyn’s mood sunk as she fixed her hair and headed back to the research room. Maybe she had just made things worse for herself. He was probably offended that she had criticized him, but she had wasted half an afternoon sleeping because of his ridiculous interrogations. He needed to know.
The Emperor stood in the center of the research room talking to another man when she arrived—a man dressed in the rich red cape of the Lox and not the gray robe of a servant. However, he was slimmer than most of the Lox, with a head of curly brown hair and silver-gray eyes. Commander Torin. Cailyn had read about him. At one point in the past, she had considered accepting a mission to seduce him in order to get close to the Lox. He was the only Beta in the army and that alone made him interesting, but there was as little information about him as there was about the Emperor. As she approached them, their conversation ended. Commander Torin walked past her without giving her a second glance.
“How are you organizing the records?” the Emperor asked.
“I’ve created piles for each decade and spread them a little so files and other information can slip in,” Cailyn explained. “Why?”
The Emperor glanced down at her. “That isn’t your usual method.”
A sudden heat spread through Cailyn. He knew Miss Lefroy’s methods. “I thought this way would work better considering the variety of subject matter.”
The Emperor made a noise in the back of his throat, before moving quickly around the room. “I think your usual method would work better.”
Cailyn stood for a moment trying to think of which of Miss Lefroy’s methods he referred to. When he began to pull the tables around the room, she knew which one. The Chron Line—the most popular method of organizing research that Miss Lefroy had developed.
Over the next few minutes, Emperor Drocco pulled a number of tables to make a line across the length of the research room. He shot her a hard look any time she moved to help, so she just watched and injected where necessary. Next, they decided how to order the information chronologically down the table, with areas cordoned off for specialist information.
“This should make the research easier to organize,” the Emperor murmured, observing the new layout. “It is a good method.”
Cailyn dipped her head in a nod. “Thank you. When will you be checking in next?”
The man walked around the tables slowly until he faced her. “I want your comments on all of the files you have examined,” he said, his voice somewhat soft.
Cailyn kept her eyes locked on his, unable to lower them as he came closer. His dark eyes looked different than normal—shiny and luminous.
“I want to be able to see your opinions on the research.”
Cailyn frowned. “You want my opinion permanently recorded on the files?”
“You are the most accomplished historian in the Eastern Lands aren’t you? Why not?”
Cailyn lowered her head, that strange trembling feeling creeping over her again. He stood too close. “Yes, Emperor. Of course.”
He stood silently in front of her and then lifted a hand to her chin, a rough brush against her skin as his finger lifted her eyes to his. “You have the job.”
Cailyn nodded. “Thank you, Emperor.”
As he stared at her, the feeling increased, expanding over every inch of her being. His hand twisted and began to close around her throat.
“Emperor, I really need to get started,” she said, forcing her voice to stay calm. “Is there anything else?”
His hand slowed, brushed down her neck, and then moved away. “No,” he said, his eyes running over her before turning and leaving the room.
***
The next morning, Cailyn asked the servant that took her lunch order for some extra parchment to be brought to the research room. If she had secured the job, the Emperor would no longer be watching her closely and she could get on with her plans. With the spare parchment, she began to copy information she knew the Mothers would be interested in: sightings of Omegas that hadn’t been recorded with them, an attempted collaboration between the Eastern and Western Lands to find them, the use of the Talent to try and locate them, and the progress made by the King of Ashens that had taken him dangerously close to the Omega Compound.
She spent most of the morning copying and adjusting the records and then reading some of the history of the Eastern Lands. She became so involved reading about the political structuring of the elusive Southern Lands, when she looked up, it was already past midmorning. She stood and stretched, then turned to sort the file into its place on the table.
The Emperor sat staring at her from a corner of the room.
She stiffened, her heart jumping into her throat.
They stared at each other for a long moment. How long had he been sitting there?
“Can I help you, Emperor?” she asked hesitantly, as her heartbeat calmed.
“No,” he answered.
She stared at him for a moment, unsure why he sat in the room. Surely he had come to speak to her? What had he seen and how long had he been sitting there? Did he suspect her?
“You may continue with your work,” the Emperor said after she’d been standing there for a while, his voice a deep rumble throughout the room.
Cailyn looked at the file in her hand, flustered. She’d forgotten what she had intended to do with it. After rereading it, she sorted it into its correct place on the tables and went back to the pile she had assigned herself for the day. She glanced at the Emperor and he still watched her.
For the rest of the morning, he remained in the corner, a silent, motionless, massive bulk watching her every move. Cailyn ignored him as best as she could but by midday, a frustration had built up. How was she going to continue with her real work if she was being watched so closely? This was worse than him visiting her every five minutes. Didn’t he have anything else to do?
She brushed off her hands and left the room, heading to her quarters. She needed to think without the presence of the Emperor, and she needed to eat.
Cailyn sat on a low, wide chair in the living room staring out over the city, munching the thick beef and cheese sandwich that had been laid out for her. At the rate she was going, it would take about a week to get the research room into any kind of logical order. So far, she had seen all kinds of random information; from the line of successors in each territory in the Western Lands to the various traditions and cultures seen in one city throughout the years. The Emperor surely liked to collect knowledge, even if he just dumped it in a room for someone else to sort out.
“This is what you asked for, for lunch?”
Cailyn jumped, her curse caught behind a chunk of bread in her throat. She spun around to see the Emperor peering down at her plate.
Coughing and spluttering, she moved away from him to spit out the food.
“This is not a suitable meal.” The Emperor peered at her plate disapprovingly. “No wonder you are small for a Beta.”
A slight fear gripped Cailyn as she tried to compose herself. She was small for a Beta because she wasn’t a Beta.
“You don’t need to eat frugally while you’re staying here,” he said. “I will ensure your lunch is adequate from now on.”
“This is my private quarters, Emperor,” she said sharply, her throat raw. “Why do you keep entering uninvited?”
“You left the research room,” he said, nonchalantly. “I came to see where you’d gotten to.”
“Am I supposed to clear my every movement with you?” she said, her voice tinged with disgust.
His gaze intensified. “Would that be a problem for you? I’m your employer.”
“I need a certain level of independence to do my work, Emperor,” Cailyn said, her annoyance creeping into her tone. “I know that’s not something you value, but in order to get the best out of—”
“What do you mean by that?” His eyes narrowed.
“I mean, I understand that you want everyone to be subservient to you but some of us are completely capable of doing a good job without constant monitoring.”
“This investigation is important to me and I will not leave it in the hands of someone who has come from Vamore, possibly with a hatred towards the Lox and their own agenda,” he said. “You can dislike it as much as you want, but it will not change. I want to know where you are at all times.”
Cailyn glared at him, but couldn’t argue with his logic. He wouldn’t know if Miss Lefroy was loyal to the Lox or not. She should have thought about that more carefully, and she would have—if she’d known she’d be working directly with him.
“And yes, I do expect everyone to be subservient to me,” he added, moving around the couch between them. “I’m the most accomplished Alpha in every Land that exists. Expecting subservient behavior is my right.”
“Just like it’s your right to have an Omega?” Cailyn snapped, her annoyance breaking down all self-preserving cautions she had given herself to be polite to him. Fuck him. This man had an ego the size of the entire Eastern Lands. “Whether she wants it or not?”
“Of course it is my right. It is the right of all Alphas to have their Omegas. It is the only way to live a life that is complete,” he said calmly, stepping toward her. “I don’t expect any Beta to understand it. You don’t have that kind of connection—that kind of want or need that an Alpha has for an Omega. You have not been blessed with that and you shouldn’t try to understand something you will never experience. As for what my Omega wants?”
He came closer still, and Cailyn backed away. She couldn’t have him close to her again.
“Any Omega would find it an honor to be with me,” he said, a determined gleam in his eyes. “Only I can provide her with what she needs and craves. It is an absolute atrocity that these abductors have kept Omegas away from the men that could give them that gift.”
Cailyn pressed her lips shut. Anything she would say right now would reveal too much about what she knew about Omegas. His traditionalist views were so archaic, it was almost humorous, but what did she expect? Everything he had learned about Omegas was from the Alphas of times past. And they had been animals.
“In fact,” he added. “It is akin to torture.”
“Torture?” Cailyn scoffed before she even thought about it. “It is torture to not be fucked and dominated into some kind of slave by some massive, egotistical Alpha?”
Her laugh had barely left her before the Emperor rushed toward her in a flash and slammed her up against the wall behind her. She gasped in shock and blinked, looking into his stormy eyes, her fear rising. She had gone too far in provoking him and who knew what he might do now? But as she continued staring, she realized no anger clouded his gaze. Annoyance, yes. Conviction, yes. Even a tinge of curiosity. But no anger. She held her relief in her throat, trying not to breathe in his scent. Even though she couldn’t really smell it, she knew it was there because that trembly feeling cut through all others as a signal, a beacon directly to him.
He leaned into her ear. “Do not mock things you have no understanding of, kitten,” he whispered. “You have barely left the luxuries of your life in Vamore, surrounded by old books and statues, to even brace the concept of torture or need.” She shivered as he leaned into her and ran his nose up her neck, breathing her in. “But you will.”
He let her go and she slumped against the table next to her trying to process what he had said. Had he just threatened her?
“Finish your pitiful lunch and get back to the research room,” he ordered.
As he walked away, Cailyn drew herself upright trying to hide her shaking. She should have abandoned this mission when she first realized he would be her contact. For some reason, this man affected her in a way no other Alpha did. She found it difficult to hold her tongue around him and at the same time wanted to submit so desperately when he stood close. She had ignored the potential threat in favor of getting the knowledge the Mothers needed, but he knew much more about the real Miss Lefroy than she had anticipated. One wrong move and she could be discovered. She had to work quickly and carefully, and get the fuck out of the Palace.